'AITA for saying my brother is a gluttonous animal and my mom refuses to buy me food?'
"AITA for saying my brother is a gluttonous animal?"
Possible_Count8157 writes:
My (20F) brother (16M) eats all the food as soon as it’s brought home. He takes everything, even things that aren’t his. The other day I bought a container of six cupcakes just for myself and took a shower. While I was in there, he got home from school and ate the entire thing.
My dad will buy me a sandwich, and it will be gone before I even know he got it for me. When it’s someone’s birthday, my brother will eat the whole large homemade cake in the middle of the night while playing video games, and no one else gets more than a single slice.
I’m also expected to get huge fast food orders for him twice a day. He’ll demand two 10-piece chicken nugget meals and an ice cream sundae right after school, then seven or eight tacos for dinner. I have to run all over town getting what he wants.
Somehow, he’s not overweight. My mom says he needs to eat because he’s a growing boy (he’s 6’4) and that he’s going to be in the NBA someday. He plays basketball, but he doesn’t even like it that much.
Meanwhile, I’m 6’1 and borderline underweight because my mom refuses to feed me enough. I’m 145 pounds and constantly told by people outside the family that I look sick and need to eat a cheeseburger.
My doctor said I should gain weight to be in the healthy range for my height. But when I ask for something small, like a latte, my mom says it’s too expensive and fattening, while my brother gets $30 fast food orders every single day.
If I eat a sandwich for breakfast, she says at dinner that I don’t need anything because I already ate earlier. She’ll say I don’t need dinner because I had a few bites of cereal during the day and “eat enough.” She takes pride in “raising healthy children,” but I’m constantly low energy and hungry because she never gets me anything.
Since I’m “not an athlete anymore” after high school, she says I don’t need to eat much. I think she’s also punishing me for not getting a college volleyball scholarship like she believed I would. I never even made varsity in high school, but she acts like I don’t deserve to take care of myself.
Today my dad got separate meals from Chick-fil-A for my brother and me, and when I came home, I found out he had eaten both of them. I went down to the basement and saw the wrappers from my meal all over the floor in his messy space where he leaves empty plates, cups, and trash.
I told my mom he was being greedy and that I’m not getting anyone else food anymore. She looked at me like I was the unreasonable one and said she doesn’t know how she raised such a selfish, food-obsessed daughter, when she herself only eats a few snacks a day (she’s 5’7).
Here's what people had to say to OP:
SmartQuokka says:
NTA. You need enough food to survive and it seems mom enables him and punishes you. He is obviously the golden child.
Lye-Atelier-Cylus says:
I think this is ESH. Your brothers appetite MIGHT be normal for his height and activity level, but his diet sucks regardless and he shouldn't be eating other people's food. Your mother has extremely unhealthy ideas of what constitutes proper eating and is actively harming both of you.
Yet you, who are an adult, refuse to accept ANY reasonable advice given to you. Clearly your family upbringing has harmed your view of what a normal healthy family dynamic or even just general life is like. Yes, your mother should not be denying you food while you live under her roof, but clearly she isn't changing, and you have all the tools at your disposal to fix this but you simply don't want to.
Uubilicious_The_Wise says:
So you can't feed yourself because? ESH. Sounds like your brother is over eating and has never been taught self control or boundaries. Your parents enable this behavior. You are not a child anymore so start taking responsibility for your own nutrition.
DomesticMongol says:
A latte is not food obviously. Why don't you buy yourself a burger or a salad when you are getting him his orders twice a day?